Happy Father’s Day

Erm. Is it just me or does Myspace not have a tag for Family? I'm just wondering because most of the people I know spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with family on one level or another (or mulitple at the same time, take your pick).

Yeah, that's me and my Dad and my older brother in the photo. Ah, fathers! I have two official fathers and several adoptive fathers. I'm very popular with parents, apparently I strike people as needing guidance often and much. They aren't wrong most of the time. As my sister told me recently, I'm highly dysfunctional on my own. I think it continually surprises my family that I am able to make it through the day without getting disemboweled, going broke or getting arrested.

Quietly, it kind of surprises me as well. I know that my ability to stand on my own two feet - even after being disemboweled twice in one year - is significantly attributable to my fathers. They are very different, yet oddly similar. Their best qualities are the same, their worst qualities are not dissimilar. They are both assholes about a lot of things. But they are generous and loving and fiercely protective and encouraging of their offspring. You gotta love that. The asshole thing is excellent preparation for the real world.

Plus, they were both in the military, albeit different branches. Is anyone else out there convinced their father is a nutjob? I suppose having children makes you incredibly strange. For a man it must be a humbling experience, to always have an emotional exposure men are not socialized or born to acknowledge. It's what makes the involvement of my fathers so much more special. They turned that vulnerabilty and terrible love into people who struggle to live in this world and somehow succeed despite formidable odds.

What a gift. I have magnificent fathers. I hope you can find something fantastic about your father(s) as well. I wish them well and thank my fathers for giving me life and teaching me how to live it.

Pater familias and all that!

Camille